[EddceLLent]

Andy Murray secures a spot in the semi-finals where he'll face Kei Nishikori, after a straightforward victory over Australian Matthew Ebden, the 2011 Commonwealth Games men's singles bronze medalist.

If Murray can win the next two matches, and thus retain the title, he'll overtake Roger Federer in the rankings on Monday.

 

[Luinir]

Asian hat-trick for Murray.

 

[ufiors]

Yes Muzza, you're #3

 

[Action Jackson]

Excellent week for Ebden will learn a lot from this match.

 

[Duncan]

Great few weeks for Andy so far. Must keep focussed though. Title is not in the bag by any means

 

[Filo V.]

Ebden will be out of the top 100 by the French Open 2012. Mediocrity doesn't begin to describe.

Murray was comfortable, nothing more or less. This tournament is extremely boring, though, and Murray is almost assured of winning the title barring shock. Whoopty do.

 

[scoobs]

Not too bad from Andy, bit ragged at times, attitude wise especially, but Ebden obligingly collapsed for 7 games after being broken in the 7th game of the 1st set and by the time he got back on an even keel it was too late.

 

[philosophicalarf]

Good fight by Ebden, some nice netplay.

Murray hit the accelerator after 3-3 first set, won 7 games in a row with some terrific stuff, then eased off again. Was fairly comfortable, only faced 1bp ( was later in 2nd set, and he aced it away).

 

[bjurra]

Ebden will be out of the top 100 by the French Open 2012. Mediocrity doesn't begin to describe.

Have a look at players ranked 80-99 and you won't struggle to spot players worse than Ebden.

 

[BroTree123]

Filo V, don't be so evil man -- we're all human.

Great week for Ebden, not bad taking 5 games of an in-form Murray. Let's hope his game develops further in the future.

 

[davidrafael]

I didn’t get a chance to respond to Filo V in the other thread so thought I might as well do it here.

I’m not going to question your character Filo V as a I don’t know you at all or anything about you, but I will question your credibility when you’re slagging others off on an anonymous internet forum.

I find it questionable when you’re slagging off top 100 tennis players. What was your highest ranking? How many ATP titles you have? (titles in the tipping forum on mens tennis forums don’t count ) You don’t get a top 100 ATP pass in a wheaties box.

Sure, its questionable for someone like Ebden to make top 100, but as Action Jackson mentioned in the other thread, it doesn’t happen by accident. You need consistent results to get there, in either ATP or Challengers, and even more consistent results to stay there. You’re slagging off Kukishkin and Bogomolov – that I really don’t understand. Kukishkin has been inside the top 100 now for 18 months nearly – that doesn’t just happen by chance. Bogomolov is 38 in the world, with wins over top 10 players – that again doesn’t happen by chance.

Just because someone isn’t pretty to watch, doesn’t mean they are not talented or deserving to be in the top 100. Brad Gilbert will be the first person to back me up on that.You’re knocking guys saying that “hard work” alone shouldn’t get them to the top 100. Are you kidding me? The worlds Challenger and Futures tours are filled with guys oozing with talent, who wouldn’t know what hard work is, all because they’re too busy travelling the world, having a good time, going out and getting pissed during tournaments whilst living off mum and daddy’s money…..

Firstly, I know Matt and grew up playing tennis with him, I’m not really a close friend of his, and whilst I got along well with him and he was always good to me, he has come across at times to others as being slightly arrogant, although all round I’d say he is a pretty decent bloke, and you’d find much worse on the tour.

There’s no doubt he’s not at the moment top 50 material, and there was an oceans difference between him and Murray tonight, but, you say his game is horrible? I’d rather just simply say he hasn’t the weapons of some of the better players of the tour.

However he has a pretty decent first serve, which makes his ground strokes better as it allows him to start the point hitting the ball on his terms, and overall I’d say he has pretty good hands at net – he can volley better than 90% of the players in the top 100 these days and a solid all court game, hence why he’s won a couple of double titles. He won 19/25 points at net tonight, against Murray, who granted, wasn’t in the form of his life tonight, but is still a pretty damn good defensive player when someone approaches him at the net.

If your questioning his strokes, What do you think of Isner and Karlovic making top 20 then?? Have you ever hit with Arthurs or Guccione? Cause I have, and their groundstrokes were pretty damn ordinary. They all had amazing serves, but apart from that they were pretty ordinary.

I will grant you that Ebdens 3 ATP quarter finals this year and his ATP doubles wins, occurred in rather “weak” ATP tournaments, which were lacking in top players. However, he has still been good enough to be the “best of the rest” and take his opportunities and has consistently outperformed players of his ranking in such tournaments. So kudos to him. Likewise, he's now joined an elite club that's made the top 100 in both singles and doubles, suggesting that he's a good all round player. An even smaller proportion of professional players achieve top 100 in both.

But what he will find difficult next year to keep his ranking up – is that if he wants to play the ATP circuit he won’t be able to avoid clay like he has this year. He's yet to play a tournament on clay this year. And to be honest, he’s not really going to win too many matches at ATP level on clay unless he improves a hell of a lot. His game is just not suited to it.

 

[GOAT = Fed]

I didn’t get a chance to respond to Filo V in the other thread so thought I might as well do it here.

I’m not going to question your character Filo V as a I don’t know you at all or anything about you, but I will question your credibility when you’re slagging others off on an anonymous internet forum.

I find it questionable when you’re slagging off top 100 tennis players. What was your highest ranking? How many ATP titles you have? (titles in the tipping forum on mens tennis forums don’t count ) You don’t get a top 100 ATP pass in a wheaties box.

Sure, its questionable for someone like Ebden to make top 100, but as Action Jackson mentioned in the other thread, it doesn’t happen by accident. You need consistent results to get there, in either ATP or Challengers, and even more consistent results to stay there. You’re slagging off Kukishkin and Bogomolov – that I really don’t understand. Kukishkin has been inside the top 100 now for 18 months nearly – that doesn’t just happen by chance. Bogomolov is 38 in the world, with wins over top 10 players – that again doesn’t happen by chance.

Just because someone isn’t pretty to watch, doesn’t mean they are not talented or deserving to be in the top 100. Brad Gilbert will be the first person to back me up on that.You’re knocking guys saying that “hard work” alone shouldn’t get them to the top 100. Are you kidding me? The worlds Challenger and Futures tours are filled with guys oozing with talent, who wouldn’t know what hard work is, all because they’re too busy travelling the world, having a good time, going out and getting pissed during tournaments whilst living off mum and daddy’s money…..

Firstly, I know Matt and grew up playing tennis with him, I’m not really a close friend of his, and whilst I got along well with him and he was always good to me, he has come across at times to others as being slightly arrogant, although all round I’d say he is a pretty decent bloke, and you’d find much worse on the tour.

There’s no doubt he’s not at the moment top 50 material, and there was an oceans difference between him and Murray tonight, but, you say his game is horrible? I’d rather just simply say he hasn’t the weapons of some of the better players of the tour.

However he has a pretty decent first serve, which makes his ground strokes better as it allows him to start the point hitting the ball on his terms, and overall I’d say he has pretty good hands at net – he can volley better than 90% of the players in the top 100 these days and a solid all court game, hence why he’s won a couple of double titles. He won 19/25 points at net tonight, against Murray, who granted, wasn’t in the form of his life tonight, but is still a pretty damn good defensive player when someone approaches him at the net.

If your questioning his strokes, What do you think of Isner and Karlovic making top 20 then?? Have you ever hit with Arthurs or Guccione? Cause I have, and their groundstrokes were pretty damn ordinary. They all had amazing serves, but apart from that they were pretty ordinary.

I will grant you that Ebdens 3 ATP quarter finals this year and his ATP doubles wins, occurred in rather “weak” ATP tournaments, which were lacking in top players. However, he has still been good enough to be the “best of the rest” and take his opportunities and has consistently outperformed players of his ranking in such tournaments. So kudos to him. Likewise, he's now joined an elite club that's made the top 100 in both singles and doubles, suggesting that he's a good all round player. An even smaller proportion of professional players achieve top 100 in both.

But what he will find difficult next year to keep his ranking up – is that if he wants to play the ATP circuit he won’t be able to avoid clay like he has this year. He's yet to play a tournament on clay this year. And to be honest, he’s not really going to win too many matches at ATP level on clay unless he improves a hell of a lot. His game is just not suited to it.

Nicely said

 

[The Magician]

I didn’t get a chance to respond to Filo V in the other thread so thought I might as well do it here.

I’m not going to question your character Filo V as a I don’t know you at all or anything about you, but I will question your credibility when you’re slagging others off on an anonymous internet forum.

I find it questionable when you’re slagging off top 100 tennis players. What was your highest ranking? How many ATP titles you have? (titles in the tipping forum on mens tennis forums don’t count ) You don’t get a top 100 ATP pass in a wheaties box.

Sure, its questionable for someone like Ebden to make top 100, but as Action Jackson mentioned in the other thread, it doesn’t happen by accident. You need consistent results to get there, in either ATP or Challengers, and even more consistent results to stay there. You’re slagging off Kukishkin and Bogomolov – that I really don’t understand. Kukishkin has been inside the top 100 now for 18 months nearly – that doesn’t just happen by chance. Bogomolov is 38 in the world, with wins over top 10 players – that again doesn’t happen by chance.

Just because someone isn’t pretty to watch, doesn’t mean they are not talented or deserving to be in the top 100. Brad Gilbert will be the first person to back me up on that.You’re knocking guys saying that “hard work” alone shouldn’t get them to the top 100. Are you kidding me? The worlds Challenger and Futures tours are filled with guys oozing with talent, who wouldn’t know what hard work is, all because they’re too busy travelling the world, having a good time, going out and getting pissed during tournaments whilst living off mum and daddy’s money…..

Firstly, I know Matt and grew up playing tennis with him, I’m not really a close friend of his, and whilst I got along well with him and he was always good to me, he has come across at times to others as being slightly arrogant, although all round I’d say he is a pretty decent bloke, and you’d find much worse on the tour.

There’s no doubt he’s not at the moment top 50 material, and there was an oceans difference between him and Murray tonight, but, you say his game is horrible? I’d rather just simply say he hasn’t the weapons of some of the better players of the tour.

However he has a pretty decent first serve, which makes his ground strokes better as it allows him to start the point hitting the ball on his terms, and overall I’d say he has pretty good hands at net – he can volley better than 90% of the players in the top 100 these days and a solid all court game, hence why he’s won a couple of double titles. He won 19/25 points at net tonight, against Murray, who granted, wasn’t in the form of his life tonight, but is still a pretty damn good defensive player when someone approaches him at the net.

If your questioning his strokes, What do you think of Isner and Karlovic making top 20 then?? Have you ever hit with Arthurs or Guccione? Cause I have, and their groundstrokes were pretty damn ordinary. They all had amazing serves, but apart from that they were pretty ordinary.

I will grant you that Ebdens 3 ATP quarter finals this year and his ATP doubles wins, occurred in rather “weak” ATP tournaments, which were lacking in top players. However, he has still been good enough to be the “best of the rest” and take his opportunities and has consistently outperformed players of his ranking in such tournaments. So kudos to him. Likewise, he's now joined an elite club that's made the top 100 in both singles and doubles, suggesting that he's a good all round player. An even smaller proportion of professional players achieve top 100 in both.

But what he will find difficult next year to keep his ranking up – is that if he wants to play the ATP circuit he won’t be able to avoid clay like he has this year. He's yet to play a tournament on clay this year. And to be honest, he’s not really going to win too many matches at ATP level on clay unless he improves a hell of a lot. His game is just not suited to it.

I didn't read this but I assume it's ownage of flyboy :worship:

 

[green25814]

Ebden is of the Simon mould, not much to his game but he knows tennis inside out, works incredibly hard and has an excellent mentality.

 

[Filo V.]

Davidrafael, your post I totally respect, but at the end of the day, I'm not a professional player, and these guys are. And some are better than others. Watching low talent players make the top 100 over talented players is not something I enjoy, nor will I ever do so. When I say a player sucks, it's relative to the place in their rankings in comparison to what there real ability level is, and also in comparison to their peers.

Bottom line is, Kukushkin, Dodig, Ebden among others, are bad players in relation to their peers and when looking at their rankings, ability wise, there isn't any reason to be there. Hard-work is all well and good, but that doesn't make a player talented nor interesting. I like players who bring something to the table. Hard-work is hard-work, but that's not bringing anything of note to the table on the court. It's not making me want to follow that player or watch them play. Can they play tennis? That's what I'm focused on. And some players play tennis better than others. That's all it comes down to.

 

[StevoTG]

Great experience for Matt to go up against Murray and I think it will help him to continue improving as a player. That's a bit of a cliche, but his encounters with Nadal, Ferrer and Simon this year certainly haven't hampered him and I would think have really helped the belief that he's capable of playing on the ATP circuit.

I'm also glad to have another player in the top 100 who uses the forecourt.

 

[green25814]

Filo V what do you think of the likes of Ferrer and Simon then?

Its fair enough to say you won't follow someone because you don't like their style but you shouldn't slag them off, appreciate the hard work.

 

[MuzzahLovah]

Well, I was a little upset I slept through this, but I guess I didn't miss much- youtube highlights?

 

[philosophicalarf]

Ebden wouldn't lose a game to the best club players you see. They'd struggle to win a point.

It's worth remembering this guy (deservedly) took a set off Ferrer last week ..... the world number 5, who is an absolute beast.

 

[tennishero]

murray #3 is like wozniacki #1... a joke to the sport.